Doing Nothing Painting

This painting is unvarnished and recommended to be handled with gloves and framed behind UV protective glass The Fragments of Life Series of abstract paintings began in 2014 and continues to evolve today. Each of these painting is an echo of my own personal evolution and life journey. I begin with a blank white sheet of roughly textured 23” x 30” 300 pound water colour paper, a palette knife, some heavy body acrylic paint mixed with gel medium and the compelling need to create. In the beginning I often don’t know what the painting is about. As the process evolves, I learn about the painting and myself. Each painting can be a culmination of up to 20-30 layers added and taken away, taking anywhere from a week to several months per painting to reach completion. During this time I am in a relationship with this piece and learn its meaning and significance, understanding what the painting has to teach me and show me. Often there is contradiction and tension - fuel for the creative fire. The blending and glazing of colours, the scratching and removing of paint to reveal under colours, the embedding of collage ephemera, the use of pencil and conte markings and scribblings all expressions of feelings of the beauty and the pain, the freedom and the frustration, the evolution and feelings of being stuck all encompassed in this journey of life. These are the fragments of my life.